Thursday, June 18, 2009

DC Trip – June 14, 2009

Since we rolled into bed about 3 am, we didn’t quite make the 9 am pickup time I assured my cousin we would. I sent her a rushed e-mail and told her 10 would be much more doable. She pretended not to be utterly annoyed, but cheerfully picked us up and drove Babo and I to Mount Vernon. CorpseKitten is a big shot at this conference, so she had things to do, so we told her we’d meet up with her later. We did see her in the lobby of the hotel on our way out to my cousin’s car. This is her doing sort of a downs syndrome Marilyn Monroe thing.Mount Vernon is pretty cool, even if you know nothing about history (I would be one of those people). It was my goal to completely mix up any historical fact and mix it into the history of Mount Vernon. For example, referring to the house as Monticello and asking period impersonators questions about getting shot in the Ford Theater and Paul Revere's ride only amuse the people I’m with. Whatever, I only need two people to laugh at my humor for me to think I’m brilliant. Also the mansion at Mount Vernon is not referred to as Graceland. The mansion is very cool, as is the fancy outhouse with removable crap-drawers, dung repository, which we took a couple photos in front of. And the other stuff we saw like the old tomb, new tomb, slave tomb, wharf, farm, and gardens.

Went to Bilbo Bagins Green Dragon Pub in Alexandria. It’s a really cool pub on the main floor and a really nice open light happy restaurant on the upper floor. They had a really good menu and it was difficult to decide. It was difficult to not get bacon as well, but as CorpseKitten says, Duck is the bacon of the poultry family. I had a Smoked Duck Salad with arugula, goat cheese, smoked duck, and hoissin vinnegrate dressing. It was amazing. One of the best salads ever. Really. I’m not just saying that.Walked around Alexandria and checked out the Torpedo Factory. It’s a repurposed factory that used to make torpedos abut has been turned into an art space for 75+ artists to work and display pieces. It’s a fantastic space for it as well – clean and well laid out and great for displays. We also did some window shopping and such. Went into a couple of fun places, but mostly just people watched and checked out the small city. Alexandria is a really neat town.We drove back to the Hotel Monaco and asked the front desk for our companion goldfish. Apparently their website says they offer companion goldfish and we wanted to make sure we got our money’s worth for this swanky hotel. They told us they would deliver it. CorpseKitten came down and said she needed to eat, but since we ate a late lunch, we weren’t all that hungry. But hey, when has that stopped me?

We walked down the street to Zola – an upscale American restaurant. Kind of shi-shi. The chef appetizer is a chicken sausage covered with a pomegranate compote and a stick of something green. It was excellent but difficult to eat. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. The compote was a little weird for my taste and the sweetness was actually too much for me. I ordered a “Zola” – the house special cocktail. Cointreau, Van Gogh vodka, and crushed limes, garnished with dried white cranberries. It was amazing and sweet and light. I wasn’t going to take a photo, but I had to, just so I didn’t forget it – EVER. When I finished the Zola, I went with a nice Malbec from Argentina – delicious. I ordered Lamb Sliders for all of us. Three tiny lamb burgers with romaine and pepper slaw and goat cheese aioli. The burgers were quite good. Possibly award-winning. I should have just ordered like 3 plates of sliders for my meal, but I’m glad I didn’t. I did however order home-made semolina noodles with three meats bolognese. It came with shredded pork, lamb, and beef underneath semolina noodles and some cream sauce was thrown in. One of the best meat dishes I’ve ever eaten. Amazingly top-notch. I had a smile on my face after the first bite. I did also steal a couple bites of Lisa’s lobster mac and cheese. It was pretty darn good, though not as good as the truffle oil mac and cheese at Seven in Minneapolis.

Babo came back to do actual work work and I came back to type up yesterday and today’s events. I got most of the way through when FireRetarded called and wanted to go out for drinks. I kindly obliged him as I didn’t want to be rude. Ha ha ha

We went to the Green Turtle and had a few drinks. Here's what I had:We tried to plan our next couple of days, but we were sketchy on a few details of which organization had parties (aka open bar) where and what times. We talked about my previous life in various bands and disc golf. And we talked about hanging out at the Embassy of Zambia the following night . Who knows how it’s going to turn out tomorrow. All I know is that FireRetarded wants to have dinner with Babo and I in Chinatown. Wurd.

Bottom 5 things1. Gerd would have loved Zola2. Still haven’t gotten our companion fish yet (it’s 2am) and I’m lonely3. It is at least 200 degrees with 143% humidity here in DC and it’s only June4. We found out our phone in our room does not work. Seriously. No front desk, no internet support, no nuthin’,5. Babo went back to do work work and didn’t hang with DeltaForceCommander and FireRetarded and I